Day: April 16, 2017

Freedom of Speech is the right to articulate one’s opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation or censorship.

The term freedom of expression is sometimes used casually , but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used.Freedom of Speech being a positive aspect or negative aspects includes a lot of points that are to be noted down.

“We have to uphold a free press and freedom of speech – because, in the end, lies and misinformation are no match for the truth.” – Barack Obama

Positive aspect of Freedom at such case can be the easier to communicate the wrong doings, to better judge what the society is not daring to see and to understand the issue of the people. It is a human right.

Social media these days have given such a broad aspect of individualism along with access of making your way to millions out there. Making a statement and throwing it up on the internet can provide millions of responses and views over night causing major source of threat to the ones imposing the fact of having no freedom. The truth and the harsh realities always win.

” I am not going to censor myself to comfort your ignorance ”

This is what the society needs. This is what every human needs. The positivity of Freedom of Speech has more strong grounds that the negative aspects.

Negative Aspects include too much openness which can result of offence to the state or the higher authority. Having a way to express what ever you want is not appropriate sometimes. Its better to remain silent and watch rather than taking a part in the movement and spilling the mud itself on your face. Too much liberalism and too much concerned about taking about social issues can be disastrous as every issue itself will rise up in front of public and have less importance of the state.

If you consider my opinion amongst these two. I would support and go for Positivity.

Why? Because speaking up for your own right and asking for it has more strength to it rather than being perfectly silent. Eighter be the head authority or the state.

It helps a person to talk expressively and to help change the system that has been linked to the negativity.

The social circle and the society needs the right to expand their feelings and emotions. To make the understanding and showing the faults and errors people make. To express the guilt and to support the truth. The actual Human Right.

“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” –S.G. Tallentyre, The Friends of Voltaire

“If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.” – George Washington

A track that constitutes or serves as my path is my pathway. The journey started from Lawrence College Murree in 2003. They say home is where the heart is and my home is my College where i started my education from class one. Living away from family at the age of 6 is a very tough task but it all ends with the never ending memories of life. Living in the hostel gives you a family that you makes yourself and it is a family that is as close to you as your blood relations. My college gave me the memories which i can cherish throughout my life.

I belong to Layyah which is in south punjab. I belong to a political family and i have witness the problems of my people which brings me to a point that i belong to a region where people are the victms but still they have a golden heart. The interest for politics and hunting is inborn to me. I love to talk about my basic roots because i believe that your roots make you who you are. I want to do something for my people and i believe one day i will.

Life is not that easy the way we pretend it, sometimes it really hits you hard mentally and physically. But every day is new day and you have to live your life because you only live onces. For me living is to travel. I love to travel and see the beauty of the world. I love the mountains and i love the peace they have in them. Love for nature brings you the love for Humanity. I believe that travelling is the best learning experience of your life. You learn the cultures and you learn how to respect the right of freedom of others through travelling. I always believed that wherever you go, go with your all heart. Whenever i feel low i try to travel the places i love.

Life at LSE is one of the best learning experience of my life. It made me stronger from inside and it showed me the real world. As time makes you change yourself but it is the test of your values that you stand firm on your belief on what you think is right. LSE gave me a new family.

Freedom of speech is the right to articulate one’s opinions and ideas without fear of government retaliation or censorship, or societal sanction. The term freedom of expression is sometimes used synonymously, but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used.

For me freedom of speech can be both negative and positive. It has both sides to it.The ability to articulate and express ideas for personal as well as political purposes is unique to humanity. This ability is, however, not without restraint. Various thinkers have explored the idea of freedom in order to expound the relationship between individuals and their society. Freedom of speech constitutes not only the act of speech but also its substance. Speech is made free oftentimes with regard to its subject matter. While most democracies today have laws for the protection of freedom of speech, any speech that can be considered an incite mentor offensive speech that threatens the peace and security of a region may be curtailed to achieve the larger purpose of the preservation of societyThe ‘negative’ ‘freedom from’ concept of liberty sets limits for the freedom of speech, it can be argued that those in favor of unrestrained free speech invoke the ‘positive’ freedom to pursue unrestricted speech to achieve a higher end. The ‘positive’ notion of freedom is grounded in rationalism. It allows freedom of one to prevail over the freedom of others so long as there is a rational basis for such subjugation, as long as one is rational, their speech will be respected by all.

“Freedom would be not to choose between black and white but to abjure such prescribed choices.” Theodor Adorno

Freedom is a basic human right.It is the power and no one should be refrained from it. Freedom of speech is the liberty, the strength that an individual to express his or her thoughts.

“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”― George Orwell

If going in emphasis of what dictionary states about speech too, it can be said as written or spoken words. But it’s much more than that and here’s where we forget the expression.

There is no hesitation in saying that social media is not only a source to gather information but also a medium where individuals from several cultures share their ideas on mutual topic. Internet liberty is what we hear and act upon throughout our lives. Taking twitter as an example people often make open comments about Donald Trump being just not suitable or being terrified on his success.

Some issues that are common to the world as a whole are openly discussed with people commenting. Take one as feminism. Being a feminist the idea of non feminism causes a dismay within me which prompts me to read what non feminists say about this cause and why do they feel this way. Twitter can somehow be considered as a protected and reliable in relation of people presenting their views.

As long time back internet was an edge that may have had a great effect on open information but as the world started to conjugate it put legitimate limitation on the expression of thoughts by an individual. As decades passed by the definition of normalism became restricted to very common activities and it was rather easy for companies on social media to manipulate the thoughts of people. Common opinions and biased thoughts are forced into our lines of vision and operate our heart and mind a lot differently. Not only this, Facebook what we call a private social media lacks most security. The headlines in the side bar of Facebook as well as twitter cannot be believed to be unbiased or very neutral. It somehow plays with our mind.

It cannot be denied that privately held technology companies would exploit any or all resources and influence our thoughts and behaviours but what’s the point of feeling threatened or violated? Lets just stop fooling ourselves

I believe freedom is a blessing and everyone needs freedom. When it comes to freedom of speech, it is more of a responsibility along with blessing. In out freedom, we must always keep in mind that everyone around us are not affected by it in a negative way or they oppose our freedom.

Speech is something which can shatter the other person and leave a mark on them for the rest of their lives. We call it freedom but something that ruins a persons mindset is not a part of freedom. We don’t realise that we are intruding their privacy and calling it our freedom. Where ever we go, we see the same thing happening only because we don’t know the responsibilities of freedom, of the blessing we have.

Section N Campaign
I strongly believe that freedom of speech is a good thing when it comes to fighting for the right thing, raising voice against corruption or even supporting some other cause but we take this freedom for granted and reach that extent on which it is no longer freedom.

Making fun of people on public forums is not freedom. It’s called bullying openly and not even being punished for that, moreover not even being called a bully. That’s not freedom. Everyone has their rights and everyone has this freedom but a few of them know their limitations.

Nowadays, there’s no such thing as privacy. We may have set everything on restricted on our facebook profiles but we all know anyone can access it anywhere anytime. We as a society ignore if something wrong is done and label it as an act of “Freedom” and carry on with our regular routines but we do not realise that along with freedom, its also our duty to stop that wrong doing.

I do not negate freedom of speech, obviously if it did not exist, i wouldn’t have been writing this but we should know it’s purpose, it’s duties and the consequences as well. I would want everyone to be responsible and enjoy the blessing we have without disturbing others.

Since I was 8, I have been taught to think before I speak. In the time I took to grow up, I realized that the thinking process wasn’t to keep my ideas locked inside my brain, rather the whole idea behind this lesson was to make me learn and respect the views of those around me. In those years I learned to listen, evaluate, and retaliate in ways which were fruitful. I gathered the many ideas invested in my brain by those who I listened to, and I learned to speak when it was right to speak, and stay quiet when my voice was being left muffled among those who it did not matter to.

It is our basic right to express ourselves and speak our minds in situations which we have knowledge of, however, it is also true that an unconditional power to ones tongue is harmful in many cases where our knowledge is confined within our level of understanding certain subjects. In such cases, the liberty to speak whatever we want to, can have disastrous outcomes and reactions.

Subjects like religion, politics, and personality are so delicate that we can never be sure if the person reading our words is on the same page as ours. The words could be misinterpreted and their meaning twisted in ways we are unsure of. Hence, it is always better to stay on ones guard when posting on topics as fragile as these.

Recently, a rumor got spread that Facebook was being banned in Pakistan, just like You-tube was banned a couple of months back. This happened due to a certain religious propaganda that was spread across the social media, and the Muslims of the country decided to put a stop to it. Read more on this:

In my opinion, I found it extremely appropriate under the circumstances, however, the fact that people of our country need to increase their knowledge and learn to debate with those who oppose them, learn to be able to answer the countless queries of these people who have little knowledge of our religion, and learn to be able to defend our religion in ways which have a non-violent end to it, is crucial.

Banning a social media platform where millions of views are being shared each passing minute, I believe, it is time we learn to respect the views of those who think differently than us, and let the authorities, be it the Government, or the PEMRA, decide which topics are fragile enough and must be kept under constant surveillance. I think, by staying in certain boundaries when speaking our mind out openly on a public forum, we can gain more and lose less. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc, have a sole purpose of people staying connected and sharing ideas, hearing the voices of those who live light years away from us, and being heard across the globe. It is always better to widen your perspective, and learn to respect the views of others, since their minds are as different from you as their bodies, and no two humans think alike.

Living in today’s era, and not supporting Freedom of Speech, is like being a coward to your own actions. Twenty-four seven we use social media to express our anger, our happiness, sadness, anxiety, and what not, and then at the end of the day, saying “I don’t believe in Freedom of Speech”, well, it simply isn’t done. Similarly, I bear in mind, that if given full liberty to speak without constraints, and communicate without limitations, i myself might end up negating the lesson I’ve been taught all my life, and I might debate in unhealthy ways, therefore, to say “I support Freedom of Speech”, I must also have enough strength in me to hear criticism on my personal and private life, and not defend it irregardless of what I believe in.

I believe we should not just focus on being heard, we should focus equally on listening to those who think contrary to our believes. Supporting freedom of speech is as important to me as it is to you, and I say we should learn and evolve, rather than stay and defend. Therefore, I support neutrality when it comes to supporting Freedom of Speech. I believe we can advance in the world when we have a balance between freedom and responsibility; and we chose to be wise.

This is how concept of freedom of speech is expressed “The power or right to express one’s opinions without censorship, restraint or legal penalty”. It is the concept of inherent human right to voice one’s opinion publicly without fear of censorship or punishment.

For me freedom of speech is somehow the freedom of a person to live. The freedom to express what an individual thinks is right or wrong. Freedom of speech is an aspect of self-fulfilment. In short freedom of speech is the voice of people. Free speech is the corner stone of a free society. All ideas must be heard no matter how crazy and all ideas must be criticized.

Now comes the point is freedom of speech right or wrong? Does freedom of speech encourage violence, is it necessary that there should be some kind of restrictions, does our freedom ends where the other’s starts, does our current current restrictions are sufficient? I believe people deserve to have a voice.” If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter”.

The use of social media for expressing your views is now one of the important topics in the debate for setting the limits to freedom of speech. Yes if you think that there should be limits on freedom of speech as every thing has limits, then you must think that your ideology is so much better than the other person you wish to censor, you should have no problem debunking there theories. They gave their theory you should give your’s, there is no way of thinking to end their’s by violence. Every person has the right to express themselves if you think they are right or wrong it’s your own mindset you should respect to their stance.

” I disapprove of what you say, but i will defend to death your right to say it”.

We consider ourselves as the modern society and we believe that we we are free to live the way we want to. But there is so intolerance in us that we cannot even give respect to other emotions or there sayings. We start to give labels on the basics of what we think without focusing on others emotions. For example

Somewhere between the labels of tou kafir mae muslim Mashal khan was killed. This shows our intolerance as a society because we never view things in a broad way. If we had given respect to others perspective this would have not happened. We kill others on the name of religion while every religion gives the message of peace and gives the right of freedom of speech and expression. I wish one day we are free to do what we want and say what we want to.